Jacob Samson Ellis, was a 19th-century prominent shipbuilder in Tottenville, Staten Island. He had a large successful shipyard business for over thirty years, with a reputation for his skill in designing vessels. Ellis died in Tottenville in 1902. His son, Hampton C. Ellis, continued with the shipyard constructing boats through the 1920s.

William H. Starbuck was a 19th-century New York pilot boat built to take the place of the Mary and Catherine, that sank in 1885. She was launched from the J. S. Ellis & Son shipyard, at Tottenville, Staten Island in 1886. The Starbuck was one of the few pilot-boats to take the offensive in the Great Blizzard of 1888, when she ran into the steamship Japanese and survived one of the most severe recorded blizzards in American history. She was one of the last pilot boats that were sold in an age of steam and electricity.